Perfect Recipe Baking Book — Murray Jaffe’s Perfect Brownies

I’d never heard of Mr. Jaffe until I found his book in the Pleasant Hill library, but I wish I could have met him. He made his fortune helping his 17 year old daughter Barbara start a baking company in 1971. They named it Barbara’s Bakery, and after running the company for many years they sold it to Weetabix. Barbara, and especially Murray, remained very passionate home bakers, and during his retirement Murray wrote this little cookbook in which he cited Barbara as his inspiration. In it are the 50 recipes he saved over the years and which of course, he believed were perfect.

This brownie recipe was Murray’s idea of perfection and in the intro he states that he must have tried 50 brownies recipes before stopping at this one. With an endorsement like that, how could I resist?

One interesting thing to note for all you avid brownie bakers is that this recipe, like the Robert’s Fudgy Brownie recipe from Scharffen Berger, requires a good beating *after* the addition of flour. Since the success of many baked items hinges on how the flour is treated after adding it to the batter (gently stirred to avoid strengthening glutens or beaten briskly to build them), I found it interesting that this brownie recipes required the latter. What would building the glutens due to a brownie recipe? They wouldn’t be tough, or Murray wouldn’t have put them in his top 50. So I suspected the brownies would have a little chewiness too them are at least be more rigid…..much like boxed brownies.

I was right. If you want a brownie with the texture of a box and the flavor of homemade, Murray’s recipe is perfect. Because the chocolate flavor comes from cocoa, your brownie will be only as good as the cocoa you use. However, I can tell you that if you break out the “every day” cocoa, you’ll still get an awesome brownies. These are chewy on the outside (sort of), thick, soft on the center, and have a perfect balance of cocoa.

Meanwhile, if you can get your hands on a copy of this book consider yourself lucky. It’s been out of print for a while, but Murray Jaffe was ahead of his time as far as home baking goes. Every recipe has an intro, but his advice on kitchen scales, salted vs. unsalted butter, types of cookieware, weights of eggs, is all ahead of his time. Or at least in terms of home baking. All I can say is if you are looking for a useful, collectible, cookbook for yourself or a gift, this is a good one.

Line an 8 inch square metal pan with foil and spray bottom with cooking spray.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Position rack to center.

In a large bowl, beat the butter until creamy. Beat in the sugar until mixed in. Beat in the eggs (just until mixed -- don't beat in a lot of air), then add the cocoa and mix until smooth. Thoroughly blend together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to the mixing bowl and beat for 2 minutes (important ). Add the water and vanilla and mix, then mix in the walnuts. Dough will be stilff and sticky.

Spread dough in pan and bake for 30 40 minutes (I baked for 30) or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out without batter on it.

Let cool for a few hours, then lift from pan and cut into 16 squares.

Notes

**Murray uses salted butter. I used unsalted and increased the salt in the recipe by 1/4 scant teaspoon to make 1/2 scant teaspoon.

Shannon, that’s correct. Murray uses salted butter plus 1/4 teaspoon salt. I only had unsalted so I used just barely a 1/2 teaspoon total. I could taste the salt a tiny, tiny, bit. However, I liked it. It was a good salty (offset the 1 1/2 cups sugar!) and not bad salty. To be safe, I’d use a good brand of salted butter next time and stick with the 1/4 tsp.

Did you try calling Southwest? I had to call last time I wanted to book a reward flight.
And not to make your day worse, but that St. Lucia ad/audio pop up on your website is VERY annoying. Plus I’d never go to St. Lucia because my brother broke his leg on his honeymoon there (!) and medical services were non-existent.

Cindy, I figure if it’s not on the website, then it’s not available. I’ve noticed rewards are suddenly harder to take advantage of. Then again, I’m looking at Spring Break Texas to Orlando so that may be the problem right there.

Sorry you had some annoying things going on. I hope the brownies helped! They sure do look good!
I recently bought a new cookbook by a famous author and since it’s a cookbook not a baking book I didn’t look to see if it had weights in it. Of course the first thing I made was a baked item and sure enough. No weights. And my results were less than perfect, although still very tasty. I am very disappointed in this author. It makes me especially proud of Mr. Jaffe for being ahead of his time and using scales and weights of ingredients. It makes so much difference! If I ever see that book I’m snapping up!!

I found a used copy of the book on amazon.com for $7.20 with $3.99 shipping. There were other sellers who had copies as well – some went as high as $60+ for a hard bound copy. I’m haven’t ordered a baking book in a long time so I’m really excited! Not much room on my bookcase but I’ll find a space for it 🙂

I wonder what they would be like with out blending for 2 minutes? I don’t want to potentially waste good ingredients to find out! Or maybe adding 1/2 small mashed banana? Did they have the shiny crinkly top or more of a crisp top? I know, so many questions!
They look delicious and easy to make!

I made these last night (using unsalted butter + ~1/2 tsp. salt and no nuts) and they are definitely pretty near perfect brownies. You are right on by saying they have the texture of box brownies (in a good way) but the taste of homemade. My hubby said they taste like the brownie bites from the bakery at Hannaford (our supermarket up here), which is a good thing! This will definitely be a go-to recipe for when I want a good classic brownie, but not something really fudgy. I really like how thick the brownies are and how they get a nice “crust” on top.

Gloria – mine had a crisp, slightly crinkly top, but not shiny. Lina – If you want to really taste the salt, I’d maybe add even a little more then specified. I found the salt level to taste normal, without a noticeable salt taste.